First there was the Fall Fiber Festival at Montpelier. 

 Then I had a spot in the traditional handcrafts section at the ‘Festival of Leaves’ in downtown Front Royal – mostly I was there to demonstrate and only took a small part of my inventory, but I did sell some things, and got to meet a lot of local people, both other knitter/crafters, and some people who had never seen spinning before!

Next, it was to the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival in Berryville – I love this show!  Indoors, nice people, great attendance, but not too crazy.  Lots of people took the opportunity to test drive one of the Spinolution wheels. 

 The highlight for me was when Barbara D, a brand new spinner who tested a Mach II at Montpelier then ordered one  came to my booth to show off her first skeins of handspun -  and they’re gorgeous!

Barbara gives credit to the wheel, which she said is so easy to understand and spin on — but I know natural talent has something to do with it too!  Congrat, Barbara, on some lovely handpun (I’m sure there are baskets-ful sitting around your house by now!)

That’s it for 2009 as far as wool festivals are concerned, but I’m only mid-way through shows this season. 

Next up — the DC Craft Mafia ‘Holiday Heist’ at the Soundry in Arlington, VA on November 21st.  I’m really excited about this one – it’s a juried show, with an ‘urban vibe.”  I was really excited to be selected to participate –  I’ll be focusing more on handspun and finished items, though I’ll still have some spinning fiber along, for anyone who wants to stop by for a fiber fix. 

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, I’m considering hosting a Spin & Knit-In at my house.  Maybe with some warm cider, a few cookies, wheels to test and yarns/fibers to fondle as we sit around and work on Christmas knitting.  Does that sound fun?  If you’re nearby and would like an invite, please send me a note.

 Soon after than, look for me at the ‘Downtown Holiday Shop & Stroll’ in Silver Spring Maryland on December 5th, another juried show, this one outside, so I’ll need to be wearing as well as selling my woolies!

Last, but not least by any means, is the ‘Handmade Holiday Boutique’ in downtown Front Royal.  This is in my hometown, and I’m one of the organizers.  It is being held in the Blue Ridge Arts Council gallery on Main Street, and is also a juried show, for quality handcrafts of all kinds (made by the vendor – no imports, resells, etc).  Vendor applications are still being accepted through November 16th, so if you know of someone who may wish to participate, please let them know!  Contact me with an e-mail address and I’ll get an application to you right away.  Oh, and mark your calendars for these events, and come see me!  If you can’t make it, you can always shop online!  My etsy shop is stocked and ready!

After weeks of frantic preparation (many many pounds of wool dyed), the first festival of the fall season is now a pleasant memory.  This weekend Wild Hare Fiber Studio set up shop under a tent at the Fall Fiber Festival at Montpelier (http://www.fallfiberfestival.org).  Gotta share the pictures!:

Here’s the first sight people saw as they approached

Spinolution wheels to test-spin, and a baker’s rack of hand-dyed wool top and crazy blended batts.

Handspun yarns of every kind

Local Coopworth wool rovings from my friend Debbie’s ‘Forevermore Farm” — some dyed by me, others blended with silk, sparkles or other add-ins to make specialty tweeds.

 And in the midst of it all, a big display rack of handpainted superwash merino braids!

If you were there too, thank you so much for stopping by! If you missed this festival, never fear.  This weekend (Oct. 10th), I’ll be demonstration spinning with a limited selection of shop items at the Heritage Crafts Village in the Front Royal Festival of Leaves.  Then, on October 24th and 25th, on to another big 2-day wool festival: The Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival in Berryville, VA — a great location for folks in the DC metro area!  That web site is http://www.shenandoahvalleyfiberfest.com if you want to check it out/get directions.  I’m still working on a few new surprises for this show that weren’t at Montpelier — and if you can’t make the shows, keep an eye on my etsy shop, and I’ll be adding more new fall items all the time!

See those pretty colors?  Can you believe that they all came from natural dyes?  What you see are the sample rovings that resulted from the first day of the Sheep Shed Fiber retreat with Carol Lee that I attended recently (and blogged about in my last post).  Now that I’m back home, one of my goals is to spin these natural colors up and use them together in a project.  So far I’ve completed:

Cochineal with alum mordant (cochineal is from little red bugs that grow on cactus — and if you think that’s icky, remember that silk comes out of a worm’s backside … eeewww!).

 Black oak bark with a copper mordant

 And these two skeins, which are dyed with logwood.  The darker bluer one is with an iron mordant.  The purpley one is with alum.

I’ve barely scratched the surface with natural dyes… not sure whether to plunge in and get wrapped up in another fibery-obsession or not!  There’s always something new to learn!   As I try to restrain myself and at least spin up what I’ve already got, I couldn’t resist signing up for another one-day Natural Dye workshop.  It can’t hurt to see how another person does it, right?  So assuming I get a space, next month I’ll spend a Saturday doing natural dyes with Priscilla Blosser-Rainey at her farm in Virginia, to complement my day with Carol Lee at her Wyoming homestead!

Spinning doesn’t usually top the lists of portable activities, but that’s starting to change with the increase in the number of portable spinning wheels that have become available in recent years.  My personal choice is the Bee, by Spinolution, which was designed to fold down and fit under an airline seat!  Lightweight in size, but not features: the Bee has a full range of ratios (1:4 – 1:36), and 3+oz bobbin, rocker-treadle, and open orifice, all weighing in at 13 lbs! 

I recently returned from a wonderful mini-vacation, spinning and dyeing with Carol Lee at the Sheep Shed Studio in Wyoming (that’s Carol in the dyepot picture).  I took my Bee along, tucked inside a 20″ rolling duffle along with my clothing.  I made it through airport security without a hitch, and it fit nicely in the overhead bins as I flew from the east coast to Dallas, then in to Denver.  I did gate check it on the final leg of the journey home in order to get a stand-by seat on an earlier plane.  That went fine too, although I did have the bag packed tightly, with lots of  padding around the flyer assembly.  There is a custom-designed bag available for the Bee that will allow it to fit under an airline seat, but I wanted the wheels (and room for my other clothing), so the duffle worked for me!  If you want more info on this wheel, please send me a note (I’m a Spinolution dealer and would love to help you out!)

Here are some more pictures of all the fun Bee and I had in Wyoming:

Spring break this week, so I had a chance to make a quick trip down the road to show them the llamas at Shenandoah Homeplace Suri Llamas in Luray, Virginia.  For the last year, I’ve been helping the owner of this lovely and historic homestead, retired Airforce General Chet Taylor, with marketing fiber and yarn from his pedigreed animals. I enjoyed getting out to see his farm (and the cleanest, neatest most organized barn you can imagine).  The children got a chance to get up close and personal to the animals, who were very gentle and even a bit shy.  My youngest first called them camels, and he wasn’t far off, as llamas, alpacas and camels are all related (in the camelid family).  The highlight for them, though, may a have playing in the hayloft!

The first batch of llama fleece was sent off to a small mill for processing into five natural undyed shades of  lovely, dehaired luxury yarn shown in these pictures.  Some was made into roving which I have both spun by hand and sold to other spinners.   While more fiber is heading to the mill and roving is currently sold out, there are still skeins of the yarn in three of the colors available, and on sale in my shop http://www.wildhare.etsy.com.  Just look in the Shenandoah Llama section ( it may be several months before the new batch is back from the mill).  

Llama is lustrous and silky with lots of drape, which makes it great for lace knitting, scarves and shawls.  The natural colors also go well together in fair-isle designs.  And it’s so meaningful to work with fiber from small farms where you know the animals are well tended and free to enjoy green pastures like those at Shenandoah Homeplace Suri Llamas.

The lovely fiber is only a small part of it for dedicated llama breeders.  To read more about these pedigreed animals and the farm on which they live (and which is in the National Registry of Historic Places), please visit their web site: http://web.me.com/shenhomeplacellamas/Shenandoah_Homeplace_Suri_Llamas/Welcome.html

One big hassle for fiber farmers and businesses like mine in Virginia has been access to commercial fiber processing for small batches.  If you want to keep each fleece separate, or try a new blend, or have less than 50 pounds of identical yarn millspun, the only option was to box up the fiber and ship it out of state, waiting months and months for finished product and relying on phone calls and written order forms to communicate what you want the mill to do.

So, I was excited to read recently on ravelry.com that there is now a new fiber mill in Virginia that is both willing to accept small jobs, offers a full range of services, and can handle ‘luxury’ fibers and custom blending.  I’m talking about the Central Virginia Fiber Mill www.centralvirginiafibermill.com in Ruckersville, just north of Charlottesville, run by Mary and Mark Kearney, who also raise alpacas.  This Wednesday I had a reason to visit Charlottesville and would be passing within 5 miles of this new mill.  I also had a nice little pile of freshly shorn fleece from Forevermore Farm — so of course a visit was in order!  Here’s the virtual tour:

Raw fleece is first sorted through for quality, and then washed in 160 degree water to remove any lanolin or other animal oils, and thoroughly air dried.  Next, it goes through the picker, shown left, which separates the locks and any matts into a nice fluffy cloud.

This cloud is then sent through the carder.  The particular machine Mary is demonstrating in this picture can create either roving or batts.  The batts can further be wet felted into felt fabric by the mill.  Roving can be sold as is for handspinners or processed into yarn. 

  Here is the spinner, which turns the roving into yarn. 

One side spins the singles, and the other side spins the opposite direction for plying.

 Here is a picture of a spool of alpaca singles spun at the mill:

The spools of finished yarn can then be wound into skeins on this machine, which will wind multiple skeins at a time, in whatever yardage you specify (I’d love to have a machine like that — the old niddy-noddy is wearing out my elbow!).

 So there you have it — raw fleece in the door, finished yarn, roving, batting or felt back to you.  I left some fleeces for custom blending, and am eagerly awaiting the results!  Unlike the out-of-state mills I contacted, Central Virginia Fiber Mill will be able to get the job done in time for the Sedalia Festival on May 16th.

In conclusion, no trip to the Kearney homestead would be complete without a few pictures of their lovely alpacas:

This past Sunday I was a vendor at the wonderful and aptly named Homespun Yarn Party in Savage MD!  Close to 40 independent fiber-types (dyers, spinners, shepherds, etc) together in a banquet hall with LOTS and LOTS of excited and happy customers!  There was a line of at least 200 waiting when the doors opened at noon, and it took some pretty strong hinting to get folks to leave at the end!  It was a blast – very successful, can’t wait until next year!  More details on the event at http://www.homespunyarnparty.blogspot.com.

Here are some pictures of my booth, which was manned with the help of Debbie White of Forevermore Farm, whose sheep provide a lot of the rovings that I dye:

 I’m now busy updating my etsy shop (http://www.wildhare.etsy.com) and getting caught up on life in general.  Tomorrow I’m out to Debbie’s farm to help with shearing… more wool to dye!  The next festival on my calendar is the Sedalia Fiber Festival on May 16th.

Just a catchy title – this isn’t about blended families, but about the beautiful creations that result through teamwork.  First example: My friend Beth at Blue Mountain Handcrafts www.beth1818.etsy.com  transformed this 2 oz. drumcarded batt of mine:

Into a lovely beaded-fringe scarf:

 She spun a single on her Ashford Traditional and plied it with a commerical yarn with more sparkles and a hint of eyelash, then knit a simple stockinette scarf, adding vintage beads on the ends.  Since I blogged about the creation of this batt in an earlier post (simply batty!), you can get a look of the project from start to finish!

Next, I wanted to show you what I’ve spun up from two of the samples I received in my phatfiber sample box (www.phatfiber.blogspot.com):

The top sample, from www.welovethor.etsy.com, came to me as a puff of hand-dyed 100% corriedale wool.  I corespun it to preserve the color transitions, and to maximize and show off the fiber.  My little skein is just over 7 yards long, with seven wraps per inch (making this heavy worsted).  Here’s a close-up:

The next sample is from www.spinningsisters.etsy.com and arrived as a little twist of hand-dyed merino wool roving.  I spun this as fine as I could, then navaho-plied it, creating a three-ply yarn that preserves the color changes.  This little skein is 38 yards long, with 22 wraps to the inch (between a fine fingering and lace weight).  Here’s a close-up:

Now here’s a challenge:  I’ve never been very good at coming up with projects for small amounts of yarn.  If you know of a pattern that would be perfect for one of these yarns, post a comment below, including the link and which yarn you think it would be appropriate for.  The yarn can be used as an accent in conjunction with another yarn, but patterns using just this yarn would be especially appreciated.  On March 12th,  I’ll draw two names, one for each yarn, from among those who submitted a pattern for that yarn, and I’ll SEND THAT YARN to the winners!  You can submit as many patterns as you want – each submission is an entry in your name.  So submit away!

This past week has been a blur of snow days, meetings, school delays and working on taxes, and YIKES,  I haven’t updated this blog with the winner of my drawing from my last post.  The results are in, and the winner is Andrea , who is knitsandknots on etsy.com, where she sells some really cute knitting patterns for baby items, and who blogs here: http://knitsandknotsweb.blogspot.com/.  Congratulations, Andrea !  I’ll be sending you an e-mail so I can find out if you prefer the yarn or spinning batt, and get your address.  (The picture is  of the yarn: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17982819)

Now, for some other news.  It’s less than a month until the Homespun Yarn Party, an event featuring  30 indie fiber folks, getting together to show and sell our products and have fun.  I’ll be there as a vendor – would love to see you!  Here are the details:

Second Annual Homespun Yarn Party! March 15, 2009

Who: All your favorite local yarn dyers and spinners, plus some extra crafty goodness! And all our knitting/crocheting/spinning friends (you!) of course!!

Where: Historic Savage Mill 8600 Foundry Street, Savage, MD 20763  Just off I-95, plenty of parking!

When: Sunday, March 15, 2009 – 12 PM to 4 PM

Why: Who needs an excuse to get together and craft?! We wanted to get together and spread some fiber love!

In addition to some great crafty vendors, we’ll also have:
free lessons on knitting, crochet, spinning, fabulous door prizes to be given away throughout the event,crafty goody bags for participants (while supplies last) and weather-permitting, a sit and spin/crochet/knit area out on the deck.

A complete list of vendors and more details on this event are available here: http://www.homespunyarnparty.blogspot.com/

It included several mini skeins of yarn, roving, several different kinds of handmade stitch markers, knitting patterns for socks, fingerless gloves and a lace scarf, hand lotion, a kit for making felted beads, and even a knitting comic book!  I’m a member of this group, and just sent out my first batch of samples in the now-sold out February box.  If you want to know more about this, and get on the list for notification about when the March box goes on sale, go to http://phatfiber.com.  Support your local independent fiber artist!

Dogs, rabbits and sheep don’t always get along in real life, but I think they combined nicely in this yarn I’m calling “Puppy Love.”

I blended together soft brown wool, angora rabbit that I had dyed pink, and white samoyed dog fur on  my drum carder.  I made rather thin batts and rolled them into rolags (to make one, start at the narrow end and roll up the length).  When spinning from a rolag, you work from the end, where the fibers are rolled around in a spiral.  This produced “woolen” spun yarn, know for being soft and lofty because the spiral arrangement of the fibers contains a lot of air.  So the yarn is extra soft and light!  More pictures:

Both angora and wool are reputed to be several times warmer than wool, as well as exceptionally soft and fluffy.  I can believe it — my hands warm up just handling the skein!  This yarn will also develop a pronounced halo as it is knit and worn. 

A word on the dog hair: Samoyeds have a double coat, and the soft, fluffy underdown is desirable for spinning.  It is harvested in the spring by combing as the dog sheds its winter coat.  This samoyed fiber came from my friend Cynthia Mora, who breeds and shows her dogs (and pampers them like crazy!).  She bathes them so frequently that, ever before I washed it, the fiber didn’t smell at all like dog!  I’ve been very impressed with the yarn she has spun and the things she has made from samoyed, and was excited to experience this fiber for myself by creating this yarn!